SSD, HDD vs eMMC – Difference and Comparison

What is SSD?

SSD stands for Solid State Drive. SSDs are the most popular in the current market of computing. An SSD is what comes in the majority of laptops nowadays, as it is the best option available.

Although SSDs have been used for decades, they haven’t been as readily available on the market until recently. However, nowadays with the help of modern technology we can make SSDs with the same capacity as HDDs, which has been a game changer.

What is HDD?

An HDD stands for hard disk drive, is seen as outdated for being used as the main internal storage of a laptop. In the past, they were the most popular form of storage for laptops and computers.

The largest of the three forms of storage, an HDD is another non-volatile form of storage, which means that it will still retain data even when it’s turned off. They’ve been around for several decades, and they’ve steadily decreased in usage in recent years.

What is eMMC?

eMMC stands for embedded Multi Media Card. It’s a type of internal storage embedded or attached to a device or a PC motherboard. The majority of the time, you’re going to find eMMCs being used in phones and tablets. However, some brands even use eMMCs for their lower spec laptops too.

An eMMC is actually made up of the multimedia card itself, as well as flash memory, which is one the most widely used forms of storage.

Comparison Between SSD, HDD and eMMC

Parameter of ComparisonSSDHDDeMMC
DefinitionIt is a new generation of storage device used in computers. SSDs store data using flash-based memory.HDD is an electro-mechanical storage device. It uses magnetic storage for storing and retrieving the digital data.It’s a type of internal storage embedded or attached to a device or a PC motherboard.
Full formSolid State DriveHard Disk Driveembedded MultiMediaCard
UsesSSDs are definitely the more durable of the choices.  Despite being slow, if you want a cheap way to store your files securely then an HDD can still do a good job.  They’re mainly used in phones, but cheap laptop brands will also use eMMCs in their laptops as well.  
SpeedAn SSD is the fastest of the three options, and it can be more than five times faster than using an HDD alternative.  Despite being slow, if you want a cheap way to store your files securely then an HDD can still do a good job.  These aren’t nearly as good as SSDs if you’re looking at something to be used in a laptop.
Storage sizeCompared to HDD, an SSD is smaller in size. This allows us to create thinner, lighter ultrabooks.HDDs are a better choice if you have a ton of files too, as you can get HDDs that have more than 10TB of space.  They’re really small, and they’re the smallest of these three types of storage.  

Reference

https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/2811411.2811536